Lma Backed In Drive To Axe Transfer Window
The League Managers’ Association has stated it has the support of every major English football governing body in its drive to axe the January transfer window.
The Premier League, Football League, Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association are all said to support the LMA’s view that the window should be closed permanently.
LMA chief executive Richard Bevan stated: ‘It doesn’t do what it was looking to when it came in.
‘It doesn’t create stability, it doesn’t create a level playing field, and certainly in the Football League they are very keen the domestic window is removed.’
Two transfer windows – from 1 to 31 January and 1 June to 31 August – run in England under FIFA rules.
Appointed LMA chief executive in 2008, Bevan has consistently campaigned for English football to adopt a longer-term strategy in the way bosses are treated and recently called on super-rich club owners to stop scapegoating them.
Bevan believes the transfer window has become a tipping point in the season during when under-fire managers are usually removed by chairman.
‘I’m sure you’ll find chairman who will say the transfer window was a final nail in the coffin of some decisions that they had to make in terms of sacking managers or coaches,’ Bevan continued.
‘But I think if you look at the wider picture, what you have to focus on is good governance, good communication, and creating that stable framework, that platform from which managers and coaches can flourish and not be strangled.
‘We’ve 13 managers under 40 and we’ve got to help these guys understand the commerciality of the game and the position of clubs as well, help the communication, manage the expectations and then they will get longer in the job to try to survive.
‘We encourage managers to get in writing from the club the targets and ambitions set for that season. Once you have that, you can manage around it and you can ensure people’s ambitions are not getting too unrealistic.’
A former chief executive of the Professional Cricketers Association, Bevan also pointed out that clubs often pay a premium for players picked up in the winter transfer window.
‘Certainly when you consider there are 663 clubs across the 52 leagues of Europe – 50% of them are losing money. That’s not a good business position and the transfer window needs to be removed.’
But the LMA chief executive conceded that English football might have a tough job trying to persuade FIFA president Joseph Blatter to get rid of the window.
‘FIFA are in a position where they’ve got one man making key decisions, and where you have an organisation that can have such an impact on the communities and business of sport, then that is not good governance at all – and it needs to change.’
